Why is cheating in online games not illegal?

[MARS-03]

There is no reason for it to remain legal, all it does is break license agreements and ruin other's experience with a product that they paid for. Getting killed by cheaters in games like Escape From Tarkov makes you lose time, because you have to spend more time getting back gear, which reduces productivity in real life, and 'enslaves' you to spend more time on a game.
I would suggest that cheating in online games on servers which you do not own be illegal, and could lead to a $2000 fine (some cheaters make money off cheating).

[Spawn of Totoro]

Цитата допису Armed defender:

Actually it is a pretty big deal, the cheat industry is worth billions.

Then it is more likely to get taxes, then made illegal.

If you want laws against cheating in a game, then I suggest contacting your government representative and pleading the case there.

Currently the laws make cheating a civil case, not a criminal one, as it only breaks the TOS/SSA/Agreement with the game/service.

Valve, and other developers, do what they can to prevent and ban cheaters, but there is only so much they can do. They are restricted by morals and privacy rights, something cheat makers are not worried about. Developers can only ever play catch-up as well. If they try to be pro-active, many innocent people are also banned along with actual cheaters.

[Crystal Sharrd]

Цитата допису ᠌ ⁧⁧Machiko | マチコ:

It is in Asian countries. Wish places like the USA/EU/etc would adopt the same but sadly that is unlikely as our internet is unmonitored unlike theres.

No one's Internet should be monitored, and it should be against international law to do so.
However, cheating in online games should definitely be illegal.
On the bright side, at least you can be sued for cheating.

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

Once something is made illegal that law needs to be enforced. You have any idea how much time and resources would be needed to enforce that? And that's ignoring the fact a law in one country means nothing to anyone not in that country.

[JellyPuff]

Цитата допису wuddih:

in the professional environment it is a multi-million dollar business.
f.e. german (e)sports club Schalke 04 sold their LoL LEC license for $30 million to someone else. imagine there would be some form of cheating in the chain of evidence leading to this event. this could totally end in people getting behind bars.

Professional players and their teams probably have cheating covered in their contracts, similar to most other sports. If you cheat, you'll get fined for breach of contract, your titles taken away and are prohibited from participating in official tournaments for a period and their career will likely be over.

Cheating in a videogame leading to prison is an absolutely absurd idea.

Цитата допису Armed defender:

Actually it is a pretty big deal, the cheat industry is worth billions.

That just seems grossly exaggerated. You can't throw astronomical numbers like these around without a source. Some cheater claiming, their cheats sell for 40+ bucks is not a reliable source, in case you want to link to that "interview with a cheater" video.

Edit: Typos.

[Antiga]

"Cheating is illegal" is nice in theory, but wouldn't work in practice, for the same reasons cheaters are already able to get by so easily.
Quite simply: Anti cheat sucks. There is no game that has some kind of Anti Cheat system, in which cannot be cheated. The bigger the game, the more intrusive the Anti Cheat, the more cheaters. It's almost as if Anti Cheat is having the opposite effect.
Between VAC, EAC and BattlEye, cheaters have never had it easier to go ahead and ♥♥♥♥ up other peoples good time. Sure, plenty of cheaters do get interrupted, but anyone who pays for their cheats will easily get by, and meanwhile a lot of legit players who do not cheat are bothered by the different anti cheat systems in different ways.
My own personal experience with that is how I always get kicked out of CS:GO after ~20-90 minutes, by VAC, as apparently something interrupted the connection to VAC, or something. Tried all solutions, nothing works and thousands of people are suffering from this, with no reason or explanation as to why, or a way to fix it.
Then there are plenty of stories of legit players getting banned by Anti Cheat.

So, if Anti Cheat is unable to properly identify people who do cheat, and in fact identifies people who do not cheat, as cheaters, how is this going to work in court? Sure, sometimes we can have actual physical evidence someone cheater, when for example in an e-sports tournament the doofus shows the cheat app to all watchers (Accidentally or not) but other than that there's gonna be no way to ever incriminate someone.

All that said, perhaps it just being illegal is enough to disincentivize a good lot of em, which would help...

[Dadpool]

This is just a video game.

If license is broken then there comes the ban and that's enough. You've written that you have to spend more time on acquiring gear, in my opinion, that's not true, nobody forces you to do that(I hope so?), you're not 'enslaved'(I hope so?), you're completely free to do anything you want in your free time(I hope so?).

It was up to you to get to know what game do you buy before buying it, I know that what I'm writing here is irritating but there is something you can do, you can stop playing it(if you wish), and play gazilions of other games, inform other people about cheaters in game publicly(with a proof of course).

[adyourservice]

Imagine installing sweetFX or something in an online game and therfore getting banned and swatted lol

[Antiga]

Цитата допису Newborn Spawn:

This is just a video game.

If license is broken then there comes the ban and that's enough. You've written that you have to spend more time on acquiring gear, in my opinion, that's not true, nobody forces you to do that(I hope so?), you're not 'enslaved'(I hope so?), you're completely free to do anything you want in your free time(I hope so?).

It was up to you to get to know what game do you buy before buying it, I know that what I'm writing here is irritating but there is something you can do, you can stop playing it(if you wish), and play gazilions of other games, inform other people about cheaters in game publicly(with a proof of course).

It seems like you're going out of your way to "not understand" what the OP means, by taking things out of context and/or too literal.

Yes, what you are writing is irritating, and nothing else. It's a futile post.

[Halo]

The Chinese authorities go after the cheat creators, but then they are making $x0m a year on things like Fortnite cheats and TenCent doesn't like it.

Who goes after a cheat creator if it is in a jurisdiction where it is not an offence? Russia for example?

And with CSGO cheaters claiming they have $10k in skins and loot boxes it should be as well, but in the grand scheme of law breaking it is at best fraud, probably minor.

Most police forces struggle to deal with murder/arson and other serious crimes, minor ones outside of organised crime aren't going to have the time/money/resources wasted.

It's down to the owners of the IP to protect and if they don't then you have your answer.

[crunchyfrog]

Why isn't it illegal?

Simple - because it ain't that big a thing in the grand scheme of things. The things that are illegal are generally things that SERIOUSLY affect society to the negative. This doesn't.

Now, as in certain parts of Asia, you could lobby your government to get something done, but because of the reason I just said, don't be expecting it to happen.

In any case, even if it were made illegal, it would likely only be a civil case and not criminal. Which means in that case, the best that could be done to an offender is them being taken to court via civil action. Not arrested.

[Pr0udCh0sen1]

There are so many countries that need laws put into place on a variety of issues, many issues that are much more important than people cheating in games. I understand what you are saying as it does suck that so many people cheat in online games with little to no repercussions. But it would probably take up more time and resources for most countries to make it worthwhile, so although some countries may take the issue seriously, I don't see many doing anything about it in the near future as far as making cheating online illegal at least...

Don't take this the wrong way, I agree with you as I wish it was taken more seriously and would result in lawsuits and fines to hopefully scare many individuals from cheating and ruining online gaming, but unfortunately for now, we have to rely on anti-cheat software and developers to keep their game servers legit... which is damn near impossible for extremely popular games with millions of gamers like Call of Duty and others....

[Paratech2008]

Forgive me, but I don't see this happening, I couldn't even see this as an FBI TV show...

[crunchyfrog]

Oh. and I almost forgot one of the most important points.

It'd largely be fruitless in so many cases anyway. The nature of online gaming is international. If someone cheats say, in Eastern Europe, Valve can't do ♥♥♥♥ about it. They do not have jurisdiction. They COULD bother to track down a legal representative in whatever country the offence happened, but they'd also have to track WHO the person was, which might be impossible from a mere IP address.

In short, being illegal is only the first step. Actually being able to enforce is the kicker here.

[real ninja]

Цитата допису adyourservice:

Imagine installing sweetFX or something in an online game and therfore getting banned and swatted lol :happygoo:

absolutely ridiculous lol

[captainwiseass]

What meaningful harm is done to society by videogame cheats?